Car has been sent to the workshop for the final time, hopefully. The parts have arrived and the insurance approved. Sent the car just now and expect it to come back on Monday, Friday is a stretch. They fix up the part tomorrow and get it painted on Friday, means only Monday I can get the car back.
Hopefully it stays pristine for the time being.
PFS’s production of Phantom of the Opera.
I said they did quite well within the context, in my last post. I read a few comments in Facebook that said they were good, some said they totally ruined it. Theater, apparently like all beauty, lies in the beholder.
Ask me again if it was good, the answer will always be, within context.. they did good. Could they have improved? absolutely! I admire their ambition, to produce such a difficult play for their first play in 10 years. I admire that. It means they have the guts, the ambition.. aim high.. That attitude will take them far. They could have made a wonderful but simple show. But lets go all out on this shall we. It is all or nothing. I like it.
But what context am I talking about? Why is it that their production is OK by my standards and what is this context anyway.
For my wife, this is her first production, her first high school play. Now, this is not to say that Kuching does not have high school play. This is her first. She said, given her school, they would not have made a production, ever. It is hard enough for them to find people who could speak good english, let alone do it all in front of people in a play. I told her maybe if your school did a chinese opera, maybe they could pull it off. FYI, she did not come from a chinese school, just so happen that they all speak mandarin in school and she is being left out in all the conversation. She said she can already imagine her only dayak friend getting dragged with wailing hands and feet to join a production, if ever there was one.
Take that thought into Penang, how many schools did manage to stage a play in the past 10 years? I can certainly say for sure.. not many. Perhaps PFS was the first. I see they also got help from other schools such as St Georges. But still, if every school has a play, then I would say that the PFS play was bad. Since I do not have anything to objectively compare to, I would take the neutral stand and say that they play was good, but things can always be improved.
I was part of Beauty and the Beast, 13 years ago. I can understand the complexity of staging a production. No, I was not the candle. Just the guy rearranging the stage props. In uni, I took up acting class for c0-corricular and in the final production, I became the stage manager. This is to say that I can appreciate the work the goes into a production. I think like some malaysian lecturers, that some marks will be given for effort. At least they tried.
I feel that for a first production, we have to start fresh. We cannot compare this production with any of those that was done more than a decade ago. The teachers are different. The students did not get the mentoring they would have gotten if it was a yearly event, where the seniors can pass down some of their skills to the juniors. It is a new slate for them and for that, I believe that a little encouragement is in proper.
All I can say is, good job for now, see you next year.
Before we head out to Melbourne, we were surfing around for places to visit and how much it would cost us for entrance fees in each of the places. The zoo was about 20 odd Aussie Dollars for adults. The Aquarium was more than 30 dollars. Then we saw the Jail. People say it is a must visit place in Melbourne but it cost 20 dollars for the entrance. Calculate all, the entrance fees for the tourist spots are something that we have to watch for.
Fortunately, when we were surfing the jail site, they mentioned that entrance with the smart visit card is free. Made us ponder and we searched for the smartvisit site.
Here is what we know then about Smartvisit Card. We will have to pay some money to get this card. With this card, we can enter most of the attractions for free. We are also given a zone 1 met card and 2 half day tours. We can buy this card for one day, 2 days, 3 days or 7 days and we will be given a met card for that duration. All we have to do is show this card at the attraction entrance and then they will let us in. Simple as that.
We got the 7 day card. The met card, we found out cost around 30 odd dollars. We bought the card for 180 dollars each because they had a mother’s day promotion that offers 15% discount.
In a way, it is not that we are getting a free entrance into the attractions. We have paid for the card and mind you it was not exactly cheap to begin with. Surfing around, there are not many personal accounts on this card. Just a passing mention here and there in blogs.
We were skeptical at first, but went ahead anyway thinking that this is Australia.. they have more ethics than what we would assume. More systematic as well, we hope. One of the things that we were worried about is the hassle of using the care. Sure the website says that we could just “swipe” the card in the entrance. Try implementing this in Malaysia and you will get a runaround and made to wait for someone who “knows” what to do with the card.
In the early morning of the first day there, we walked to the Melbourne Aquarium. That is where their office is and there is where we could collect the cards. It was winter, our first day there.. the walk was not that far.. all the energy and enthusiasm. The card processing was quick, after they got the manager who was out for breakfast. We walked around the souvenir shop in the aquarium. When we got out, the cards were ready, the met card usage explained and we were ready to go.
The cards also come with a book. What are the attractions we were entitled for. Almost the same thing you see on their website.
As I mentioned earlier, using the card was a breeze. No hassle. The main selling point of this card is the 2 half day tours offered by APT. Wonderful tours. Also, take the river cruise. The guy at the river cruise asked us if we want to take the cruise up river or down river.. or we can take one up today and one more down tomorrow with that card. See, you can enter a place again, the next day… and again.. as long as both are not done on the same day.
There were a lot of places we would not have visited and had as much fun if not for this card. We would not have taken the tours because they are expensive.. for a half day city tour.
Wife calculated the actual cost if we were to not use the card. It came up to more than what we spend on the card. So it was worth it for us. I believe, this card made the travelling expereince more fulfilling, having not to worry about spending on entrance fees.
How was it? Well firstly, nice chance meeting Ghim at the play. Had a wonderful time with the wife walking around the school reminiscent over the good old days.
Now before I do any review, let me put the whole thing in perspective and in the right context. I just come to know that this is the first time PFS has organised a play since the last decade. I mean a whole missing decade? That means there are at least 4 years of students who did not have a chance to work in one of these production. FYI, I did take part in one, back in 1996 as a stage crew. Guess which show was that.
Also, the MAD, formerly known as MUSIC and Drama society, is not MOVIES and drama society. Something has to go about the change in name.
On to business. The play is based on the 2004 movie and not the book. They try to adapt the movie to a theater. Movies, the director can play around with camera tricks and special effects. For theater, a lot of imagination from the audience. As for me, I could not remember how the story was in the movie so there are a lot of parts in the play that seems disconnected.
The actors and actress. They can act. I have no questions about that. Drama. They has it. But when it comes to singing.. that needs a little more practice. I noticed that the lead actress lip sync in some of the songs. I have no offense towards that since some of the songs are really difficult to sing and it is not often that you happen to chance a soprano singer in Form6. The mic should have been turned off in one of the lip sync. If I did not hear her voice over the original voice, I could have been fooled. Her lip sync was perfect, as I said, they were good actors.
They could have done a better job with the sound system. The actors were given this super canggih mikes but some people are softer than the other. And sometimes, the mike was not on. Last time, instead of individual wireless mikes, we strung a few condenser mikes on stage.
We love the chandelier, how it is made from those cheap christmas lights. I wondered for a while how the boat moved. Later I found out they did it ala flintstones. It was creative.
Other than the technical aspects, the play is as good as it gets for one that has not been done in the past 10 years. Their strong points are in acting, not singing. They could have left out some of the more difficult songs from the movie or at least lip sync.
This is the first experience for my wife. She has not attended a school play before. Not in her school at least. It is an experience, nevertheless.
My suggestion for next year, Mama Mia!
Yes, I got the tickets to the Phantom of the Opera by Penang Free School. As a proof.
It is a sign that I am getting old, reminicent over the good old days. Small things like this makes me feel young again. And I know I will feel old again when I sit down to watch a play by kids no older than 20, sitting among kids no older than 20. I am sure a lot of them will bring their dates along. Young love. Just FYI before the wife gets jelous, I never bring dates to school plays because I have never been to one! I said I participated in one, but I have never been to one. So the air is clear, other than the haze of course.
I can hear it already, they will either call me sir.. which I still cannot get used to.. or uncle! I don’t know which is worse.
Again, what I told the wife.. we will either be entertained by the great rendition, or we will be entertained laughing at how the play went.
Either way, it will be entertaining.
We will be there early, see if I can still remember part of the school that I spend my youth.
You want to know how I found out about the play? Someone posted in Facebook status asking if anyone is going to the PFS play. And the person who posted is not even studying in PFS. Hey, don’t look at me like I am a child predator. I am sure I am not the only person who has friends below 20 years old. Makes me feel younger 
BTW, before you send in the police, those younglings are from the RCS. It is good to have a diverse network of friends
When I was in form 4, somehow or another, I got involved in the Music and Drama Society’s play in school. Music and Drama Society, aren’t they the MAD guys? Yes.. Mad.. and a little crazy. We were doing the play on Beauty and the Beast. Based exactly on the cartoon. Imagine trying to turn the cartoon into a play. Amazing that we manage to pull that off.
The was the first and last play for me.
Until I heard the PFS MAD is going to have Phantom of the opera next week. Thank god for facebook, the amount of mostly useless information there is offset by the occasional “good to have” information. Someone posted in facebook about who is going for the PFS play. And surprisingly, I have friends in facebook who are selling tickets.
Now, before someone goes out and call the police to report about minor abuse, those people I know are from the RCS and some of them are in PFS and One of them sells tickets. All I need is one person who does what I want right.
So I got the tickets. VIP somemore lorr. I know how large the hall is, so sittin in front is probably a good choice.
Tell you how they do after the play. Apparently, it is selling fast.
Also it is a good chance to show the wife my old school. She has not been there before. No thanks to the strict access to the school.
It was probably a traumatic day for the wife today. Well not as traumatic as pissed off. This has to do with the car. I had a meeting at work today but the workshop “Service Assistant” insist that we bring the car to the workshop early in the morning for the adjuster to have a look. He promised that the adjuster will only take a while and I can go back to the office. Thankfully, I did not want to risk missing the meeting and spoiling my first impression with a new boss, so the wife lovingly sacrificed to head down to the workshop for me.
Thanks dear.
I know that he is trying to do his best to help me get the car fixed as fast as possible but sometimes, people can make life miserable for everyone. The adjuster was a pain in the ass, apparently. It took him more than 2 hours to access the damage to the car. I was told that he would just have a look at the car but the wife said she just turned around for a while and the whole front part of the car was dismantled. He was taking photos of the car after the front part was taken apart and scrutinizing all the part that was to be changed. It does not matter that he had to take the whole front of the car apart. He wants to see it. And apparently, the workshop has to take some of the mechanics away from their job to entertain him.
He also asked why the front car that we bang did not lodge a report. Like how we know.. he does not want, not that I can force him to. He asked my wife a lot of question that was already in the report. The police report is there, want to question the police?
anyone know how the secret life of an insurance accessor works?
I did not update my blog the couple of days because 1. the internet was down and 2. A lot of work to do.
A man only needs two tools in life, WD40 to make things to and duct tape to make things stop
I read this “graffiti” in the men’s toilet in AngleSea, one of the town along the Great Ocean Road. It is a small town, hardly see any people. But it was winter and apparently in summer, this town will burst at its seams. The people we see there are the tourist who arrive with the buses.
But they have a toilet. The toilet is not much. It is a building on its own across the road from town. That meaning, you cross the 2 lane road from the only row of shophouses in town and there is the toilet. It is relatively clean compared to most toilets we get in Melbourne. But it is clean compared to what we have in Malaysia. A bit wet because it had rained that morning and people were trudging puddles of water into the toilet.
Most important. It is FREE
The graffiti, looks like it was purposely painted there. It has a hippy motive and from what I understand, caravans.. those little RV that they tow behind cars, are a big thing in aussie.
Toilets are not an problem in Melbourne. I was surprised in my first few days there, to see green metal stalls at intersections, especially near parks. Toilets!
Take another example. In the town of Port campbell, population 600. The bus driver drove to the end of town and pointed to a very nice building. You can say the building looks like a small building from putrajaya. He said something like, “that nice building down there is not the mall, it is the toilet. So head down there”.
Toilets are everywhere.
And the toilets are CLEAN! Most probably because they do not have bidets. Just toilet papers. And for the whole trip and all the public toilets that we had to use, I have never gone into a toilet that has run out of paper. Now we all know how terrible that would be. Believe me, we used a lot of public toilets. We are always on the move and hardly ever go back to the hotel room.
The toilets were wonderful.
Some toilets are “green” toilets. At the federation square, the urinals do not have flushes. They are supposed to be waterless urinals. Not sure how that works. Some places, it is mentioned that the water is collected from rain and it may look brownish. Interesting.
I believe it is how their young is educated in using toilets. More on that later. Still dreaming of clean public loo.
Standing outside the toilet looking at the town of anglesea. I wondered why I didn’t take a picture of the toilet from town. Sigh.
There are too many idiots running around this country.. or maybe there are too many idiots running this country. Whatever it is, I got screwed this morning. Well I could get screwed deeper but thankfully, there are still a few reasonable men around.
This is regarding the accident I got 3 weeks ago. I was hoping after returning from my vacation, the workshop fellow can say that he has completed the paperwork and waiting for the insurance to settle the problem, after all, I am innocent. But no. Instead, I got a call from the workshop that they still need one more paperwork, the 3rd party insurance.
My car is done by Lowe motors. They are not those tor truck vultures and they don’t have connections in the police and JPJ. Most of the stuff they try to help me but at the end of the day, I have to chase the paperwork for them. Well I got most of the paperwork. We need about 15 paperwork for the claims and I got all but one.
This 3rd party insurance paperwork is easy. I just need to know what company he is insured under. Simple thing is to call the person and ask. Actually, the workshop was kind enough to call for me and guess what. The idiot picked up the phone and did say a thing. It is like he is trying to waste our phone bill money. Idiots. He tried a few times and I also tried to call him. Buggar. Are there no such thing as gentlemen anymore? He could just pick up the phone and talk like a normal man instead of pulling all this stupid crap on us.
He was in the wrong for crashing into me. The least he can do is to make life all easy for everyone. By not helping, he just made me more pissed. At the end of the day, what is there for him to lose of he did help me? He thinks that he can escape from paying me? He will get his insurance claimed anyway, just easy or the hard way. Easy way.. we all make friends. Now he is really showing how idiotic he is. This kind of attitude seems to be the norm these days, gone are the days for chivalry. Screwing each other is the game now.
So the next thing that we have to do is go to JPJ and do a search. Easy right. Well apparently not. 3 different people gave us 3 different runaround. The workshop had this case last week, almost the same as mine, where the 3rd party was a pain in the ass and she had to do a JPJ search. Apparently, I had to go to the insurance company, get them to “link” with JPJ and then I head down to JPJ to do the search. Supposedly, JPJ will not just let anyone do a search. Of course right, for privacy protection.
I went to the insurance company. Guess what. The insurance agent said no such “link” is needed. Then I told him the case and he called his HQ in KL. Apparently, the KL guy also had this same case last week. Where the JPJ refuse to let the owner of the car to make a search. The solution? Get a runner to do the work, that is what the KL people do.
and that is what I asked my workshop to do. Get some runner to do the work.
We all know why the runners can do the work and the rest of us cannot. Some palms are greased and the JPJ officers are well taken care of .
I am bloody frustrated about this system. It gives me the impression that nothing every gets done without some grease. If this goes on, everyone would need to carry a WD40 around all the time to get things done. This is too much.
Well we did go to the police station and asked the kind sargent to help us get the insurance company. He did try and guess what, the JPJ is OFFLINE!
Isn’t this country amazing.
Know a place by visiting the market. That is what I did. QV market is HUGE. They sell everything there and they are more known for selling souveniers there than your produce. They do have a relatively small wet market which sells seafood and meat. I could have mistaken the wet market for supermarket and wet and anything but.
here are some of the stuff they sell in the wet market.
Nuts of all kind. 3 packets for 12 dollars.
fresh pasta. Like wimpy and fresh pasta. none of those hardened dried thing. This is the real thing!
Kangaroo salami anyone?
dips of all kinds. I believe this is one of the quirky Australian thing. you buy these dips and you eat them with crackers.
cheeses of all kinds. Some shops sells 3 for 10 dollars. We got some.
chocolate. Like fresh, if you can call it that, chocolate.
Ham and deli of all kinds.
this is a typical meat shop.Every cuts of meat there.
sausages of all kinds. the fresh one. Not frozen.
